Sunday, August 02, 2015, 5:28 p.m.

Hacking trial: Brooks acquitted on 1 of 5 charges

LONDON — Former News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks was acquitted Thursday of one of the five charges she faced over wrongdoing at Rupert Murdoch's British tabloids: an allegation that she bribed an official for a picture of Prince William in a bikini.

Judge John Saunders told the jury at Britain's phone hacking trial that there was "no case for Mrs. Brooks to answer" to one charge of conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office.

The charge related to a picture obtained by The Sun newspaper when Brooks was its editor, showing Prince William dressed as a Bond girl at a party. Saunders said "considerable uncertainty" had arisen about the source of the photo.

Brooks, 45, still faces one similar charge, and charges of conspiring to hack phones and obstruct police.

She and six others are on trial on charges stemming from the revelation that Murdoch's News of the World eavesdropped on the voicemails of celebrities, politicians and even crime victims in what prosecutors have called a "frenzy" to get scoops. The scandal led Murdoch to shut the 168-year-old News of the World and sparked wide-ranging police investigations.